Isaac Rosenberg was born in 1890 into a working
class Jewish family in Bristol. His parents Barnett and Anna
had immigrated to England from Lithuania in 1887. At
that time Lithuania was a part of Imperial Russia, and Barnett
fled to England to avoid conscription into the Czar's army.

You can find out more about the mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe
to Great Britain during the late 19th and early
20th centuries in The National Archives Pathways to the Past
'1901:
Living at the time of the Census' exhibition. Or, from the
same exhibition, you can see a case
study telling the story of another Russian Jewish man who
moved his family to England. There is also information on tracing
immigrant ancestors in our guide Looking for records of an immigrant.

Isaac's birth certificate (see detail below) records his birth
at 5 Adelaide Place in Bristol, on 25 November 1890. His father
Barnett's profession is entered as 'Licensed Hawker' - this means
a peddler, which was a common occupation of Jewish immigrants in
the 19th century. For information on how to obtain a birth
certificate, see our Births,
Marriages and Deaths research guides.

The National Census first began in 1801 and
was repeated once a decade thereafter. From 1841, personal information
on individuals was recorded. In the 1891 census below we can see that
the Rosenberg family are still living at 5 Adelaide Place in Bristol.
It lists all the family members, including his parents Barnett
and Anna, Isaac's older sister Minnie, and the four month old
Isaac.

The census record lists Barnett Rosenberg’s
place of birth as Russia. We can also see that his name
is written as 'Barned', whereas on the birth certificate
it was written as 'Barnard'. It is likely that Barnett
spoke his name, and the spelling was left up to the registrar
or enumerator. When carrying out your own
family history research, remember that spellings were far more flexible
in past times.

By the time of the 1901 census, ten years later,
the Rosenberg family had moved to East London so that Isaac could
attend a Jewish school. We can see from the 1901 census that the
family were living at 58 Jubilee Street; it is known that they also
lived at 47 Cable Street and in Dempsey Street in Stepney. The
1901 census is available online.